Lynne Portues and Nathalie Veart

A MUM and daughter carried out a campaign of hate in their community - including threatening to kill a baby, branding an innocent vicar a paedophile and bombarding police with nuisance 999 calls.

Nathalie Veart, 21, and her mother Lynne Portues appeared before Hartlepool Magistrates yesterday.

Father Paul Allinson standing next to the fallen tree at the Parish Church of St. John the Baptist, Greatham as Geoff Kelly starts to cut it up. Picture by FRANK REID

But after bizarre scenes where the pair chanted at the bench that they did not “recognise the law of the land”, the trial was eventually heard in their absence after justices lost patience and had them ejected from the courtroom.

Veart was found guilty of sending an offensive Facebook message which implied that Father Paul Allinson, vicar at Holy Trinity Church in Seaton Carew and St John The Baptist Church in Greatham, was involved in paedophilia.

She was also found guilty of making threats to kill an eight-month old baby after an abusive rant in the street with a neighbour.

Portues, 54, was found guilty of making 22 nuisance calls to Cleveland Police in the space of three days complaining about her neighbours.

Despite the allegations made against him, Fr Allinson told the Mail that he would “forgive” the women.

Veart sent the abusive Facebook message to Seaton Carew Golf Club and also to Sarah Baker, a member of the church, on July 22 last year.

When Fr Allinson was told about the allegations, he advised the Mrs Baker to inform the police.

A week after posting the online comment, Veart then came out of her house and told her next-door neighbours Anne Holland that she would kill their grand-daughter who was just eight months old at the time.

In police interview, Veart asked police: “Do I look like a murderer to you? Would I kidnap the baby next door and kill it? No. I’m just very distressed.”

Portues, of Gilpark Grove, Seaton Carew, made the 22 nuisance 999 calls to police between 5.40pm on July 26, last year, to 12.50pm on July 29 last year, repeatedly saying her daughter had been assaulted by a neighbour.

She demanded an officer to attend her property, and in separate calls also mentioned that she was making a sandwich for her daughter and that she had let the dog out.

At one point there were five phone calls to police within a 45 minute period.

Chairman of the bench Gareth Hicks found Veart guilty of sending by public communication network a message that was grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character, and also of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour.

Portues was found guilty of persistently making use of a public communications network for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.

Due to the mum and daughter leaving the court building during the trial, Mr Hicks issued a warrant for their arrest to be brought back to court for sentencing.

Speaking after the hearing, Fr Paul said: “As a clergyman all I’ve ever tried to do is be supportive and caring and try to help the two people involved.

“Despite the pain and sadness it caused to myself, I have to continue to try to be forgiving and maintain standards that I should hold as a Christian.”

Mrs Holland, a 52-year-old accounts clerk, added: “It’s been absolute hell and it’s been distressing and upsetting to hear that said about your baby grandaughter.”